“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” - George W. Bush

Friday, July 15, 2016

Want to Hear What Mike Flynn, 57, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), has to say about ISIS, Syria, Libya and Iraq?

Trump Foreign Policy Advisor: ‘Americans Are Fed Up With the Bullshit’

"Why the hell" did we intervene in Libya? “That's beyond stupid."

In an interview with SPIEGEL, Donald Trump advisor Mike Flynn explains why the presumptive Republican Party presidential candidate admires authoritarian leaders and considers the US foreign policy of recent years to be a disaster.

Mike Flynn, 57, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), has served as a foreign policy advisor to Donald Trump since the autumn of 2015. For a time, Flynn had been considered as a possible vice presidential candidate for Trump before the announcement Friday that Indiana Governor Mike Pence would be made his Republican Party running mate.

SPIEGEL: General, we are here to say goodbye.

Flynn: Why goodbye?

SPIEGEL: Donald Trump announced that if he wins the election, he will not continue trans-Atlantic relations in their current form. He has threatened to withdraw the United States from NATO.

Flynn: This is where I think the world has misread Donald Trump. He has no intention to step away without examining all relationships that we have. His intent is to relook at the way we are organized globally, where the US is sort of expected to be a global leader, but relook at these alliances and these charters that we are under to make sure that they are still viable for the 21st century. It doesn't mean that President Trump comes into office and NATO goes away. But I would say that NATO as a political alliance does need to be revoked at in terms of everything -- resourcing, capabilities.

SPIEGEL: Now you are challenging NATO after all.

Flynn: NATO was formed post-World War II. We're a little bit more than a half-century old. Do we want NATO to go on for another half-century? I think that the answer is, sitting here today: I don't know. If I had to bet on it, I would say, yeah, we have to have these alliances going forward and see who’s going to pay for them.

SPIEGEL: Germany obviously plays an important role in Trump's considerations. He addressed Germany specifically and demanded that the German government pay in the future for the security provided by the American troops stationed there -- otherwise they could be withdrawn.

Flynn: We have to look at the cost of resourcing the US military around the world. How is that cost incurred, and how is that cost paid for? I'll give you an example. The Chinese get over 40 percent of their oil from the Middle East through the Persian Gulf, but have you ever seen a Chinese aircraft carrier sitting inside the Persian Gulf? For at least 40 years, the United States of America has been guaranteeing Chinese energy supplies. Sitting here today, the US provides funds to, honest to God, 99 percent of the countries on the planet. We even give North Korea humanitarian aid. We give them food, and God knows what they do with it. They probably feed it to the crooks in the headquarters. This is not about an antagonistic relationship with Germany or NATO. This is about looking and examining what the needs are going forward for the 21st century and who is going pay for it.

SPIEGEL: In December, Trump cursed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, complaining that she was too soft in the refugee crisis. Is that not counterproductive for cooperation?

Flynn: Yes.

SPIEGEL: Beside the factual questions, he was very tough in his language.

Flynn: I think all of Europe has been too soft on the refugee crisis.

SPIEGEL: But he offended Merkel. Does that serve to strengthen alliances?

Flynn: If she was offended by it, she was offended by it. That's the business. But the point was the really incredibly poor decisions when it comes to allowing this unbelievable, unprecedented refugee crisis that's going on in Europe. Why are these people rushing to the beauty and strength of Europe and to the United States and not rushing to their own capitals or the capitals of the Muslim world? We ought to be pushing back. We ought to be putting people back on these boats and putting them back into the places where they came from and telling these leaders in the Arab world, "You have a responsibility as well." I don't think that Europe responded in a way that they should have responded, and I think that's what Mr. Trump was reacting to.

SPIEGEL: Can you explain Trump's fascination for strong leaders like Vladimir Putin or Saddam Hussein, whom he recently praised as an effective hunter of terrorists?

Flynn: He respects people who are selfish about their country. Putin is a guy who is very selfish about Russia and about the Russian federation, and he understands the history of his country. You can't say, "I don't like you." You've got to respect him. He’s a world leader.

SPIEGEL: Is Putin a reliable partner for America?

Flynn: Putin will be a reliable partner for certain things for the United States, yes. Absolutely. We need to have a relationship from the top to the bottom, same with China.

SPIEGEL: Trump just urged Saudi Arabia and Japan to become nuclear powers as well. With comments like that, is he not encouraging a dangerous nuclear arms race?

Flynn: The threat of nuclear warfare is very, very low. Trump is no fool, and he sees the world as a globalized world. In the conversation we're having right now, we're talking about historical aspects of regions of the world, so sort of world history. It's not that he needs a lesson in world history, but it's very important that you understand the history of Europe, the history of Africa, the history of the Middle East. What are the trends that we could expect to see in the next few years, like the next 10 to 50? Will there be another major war? Will there be a war between China and the United States? We talked a lot about that, and we talked about sort of what were the "What Ifs?" What are the potentials, and what are the things you need to be prepared for when you step into office?

SPIEGEL: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un endorsed Trump and pledged to support him in the campaign.

Flynn: I found it funny. I mean, the guy is smoking cigarettes while they're launching missiles. Trump probably laughed about it, like I did.

SPIEGEL: How important is foreign policy to Trump?

Flynn: His No. 1 priority is the US economy, but I would say foreign policy and national security are in the top, probably, two if not three topics.

SPIEGEL: His foreign policy speeches have sounded vague and in some parts even contradictory. Would you agree that there is no solid foreign policy program right now?

Flynn: No. Foreign policy is about US national security, it is definitely not non-intervention. It is definitely not isolationist. That's where people want to hear what they want to hear and not listen to what he says. It is about national security for the United States, and that’s fine.

SPIEGEL: Either way, he is demanding in his speeches that other countries take care of their own problems.

Flynn: And I think that's right -- that the United States should not have to intervene in every single problem around the world. The voters of this country are reacting in a very big, broad way to Mr. Trump. They are frustrated by lousy decisions made by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Look at the mess we have.

SPIEGEL: Are you speaking about the Iraq war?

Flynn: We're speaking about three incredibly stupid decisions. The first one was the invasion in Iraq. They said there was a nuclear weapons thing, but we were actually responding to the attack of 9/11. All of a sudden, somebody threw in this other, like, “Hey, maybe we can use this as an excuse."

SPIEGEL: That was Bush's decision. What about Obama?

Flynn: Obama's decision to leave, to not sustain the victory that resulted after eight years of fighting, from 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, was another incredibly stupid decision. It was totally based on politics, not based on any notion of national security. It's a nightmare for our national security. And then you have the Libya intervention.

SPIEGEL: You're speaking about the decision by NATO to overthrow Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi in the fall of 2011.

Flynn: You look at Libya, and you go, "Jesus, why the hell did we do that?" That's beyond stupid. That’s so irresponsible and dangerous for our national security and frankly for the national security of Europe because you go and you look at where a lot of these refugees are coming out of, they're coming out of Misrata and Tripoli.

Flynn: He would avoid those stupid decisions. When you look back, history is not going to be kind to these last 16 years.

SPIEGEL: For a long time, conservatives have pushed for the export of democracy and human rights. Will that come to an end if Trump becomes president?

Flynn: Yes, because it's wrong. The United States acted under a misinterpretation of a concept that we wanted to implement the system of democracy all around the world.

SPIEGEL: After the harsh words about Muslims, many view Mr. Trump as being racist and an enemy of freedom of religion.

Flynn: The wording was sort of wrong and I would not have said it the way he said it. But I also would not try to be politically correct either. There must be a ban for individuals who espouse this notion of radical Islamism, period.

SPIEGEL: Why is Trump so harsh in his choice of words?

Flynn: Trump is a fighter. Imagine a boxing match. You go into that fight bigger than you are. And he learned a lot in the last months. The quotes you are talking about are months old. Remember the box fight: You start as a southpaw, you go back to fighting as a right-handed fighter.

SPIEGEL: How does Donald Trump react when you criticize him?

Flynn: He's a great listener, and he's a good challenger. He doesn't come across as a person who thinks he knows it all. In fact, he once told me he has had lot of things to learn.

SPIEGEL: He also says he has a very good brain or that he learned all about foreign policy during his time as a businessman. How is it possible to advise someone like that?

Flynn: I know Donald Trump as a very adaptive person. In my nearly three and a half decades of being in the military, I've had maybe one, maybe two guys that I've worked for that were that adaptive in combat. He adapts to the great challenges, with his own sort of street smarts and his instincts.

SPIEGEL: Do these personal traits make a good president?

Flynn: Definitely a better one than all the (former) governors who were in politics all their life. Trump realized that you had to drive a stake through the heart of this establishment and that millions of Americans do not feel represented by this sort of clique in Washington. Now he is on top of many polls, everything else he can learn when he has reached the White House.

SPIEGEL: So we will hear him using a more presidential tone?

Flynn: He will never give up his style, his way to target his enemies. The Americans are fed up with the bullshit they heard for many years. They want the truth, they want to believe what their leaders are saying again. Trump is such an underdog, a fighter -- a man who rebels against the establishment, against all kinds of resistance. That is what Americans love.

Bob Thu May 27, 12:52:00 AM EDTBut I did rip off the bank for $7500 hundred dollars, when I was on my knees, and fighting for my economic life, on my aunt's credit card. But that wasn't really stealing, just payback. After all, I had paid them nearly 20% interest for about three years. My lawyer thought it to be a hell of a good move. He got most of the money. It was tough, in them days. They couldn't do a damn thing about it, I put her in the rest home, age 96. What you going to do, when she is institutionalized?

How do you, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, after institutionalizing your Aunt to protect yourself?

20%vfor three years, that is 60%, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you are an admitted their, looking for justification for your thievery and moral turpitude.

In case the word turpitude is beyond your vocabulary ....

"moral turpitude" - an act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between man and man.

I must admit I had more experience with the Neshaminy Creek than the Okeefenokee, but Hillary Clinton owns Libya and Syria. That is the type of intelligence and decision making that would not make a good POTUS.

Bob Thu May 27, 12:52:00 AM EDTBut I did rip off the bank for $7500 hundred dollars, when I was on my knees, and fighting for my economic life, on my aunt's credit card. But that wasn't really stealing, just payback. After all, I had paid them nearly 20% interest for about three years. My lawyer thought it to be a hell of a good move. He got most of the money. It was tough, in them days. They couldn't do a damn thing about it, I put her in the rest home, age 96. What you going to do, when she is institutionalized?

Speaking of a moral compass, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you are on the Highway to Hell.

Calling for gun control doesn’t work when a truck is the weapon of mass destruction. Calling for voters to try to understand the motivation behind such attacks is fine. But a presidential candidate must also understand those voters who aren’t students of psychology or advanced international relations.

As they watch that long white truck roll down a palm-tree lined boulevard, the relations they are thinking of are their mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, and grandchildren.

It's true one would have to be a perfect dumb shit to vote for Hillary, but I might as well just give up on him, and, instead of calling him a dumb shit, give him a break, and just say, as he is getting older, he's simply gone soft in the head.

Ambulances line up near the scene of an attack in the French resort city of Nice, southern France (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

As one who went out on a limb to say the presidency was Trump's to lose way back in August 2015, I am going to go further out on that limb -- and offer others a saw -- by saying that not only will Trump win the presidency, he will win in a blowout.

I don't necessarily mean a blowout of Nixon-McGovern proportions, but by a significant margin. Even in the last week, the polls are beginning to show this. But now everything is intensifying.

The reason should be evident. This is going to be a national security election. I started writing this article before the horrifying news started coming in from Nice, but even then the situation couldn't have been more obvious. As anyone paying the slightest attention knows, Islamic fundamentalism is at war with Western civilization. It's not just ISIS, but unfortunately many continually metastasizing organizations based on the same ideology. (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula recommended using a truck as was employed in the Nice attack in its magazine Inspire in an article titled "The Ultimate Mowing Machine.")

Barack Obama's response to our civilizational enemy has been a disaster. Because of the president's deep neurotic ambivalence about his own Muslim background, he is incapable of confronting, let alone naming, the evil of jihadism. In reality, he made the problem worse and encouraged the rise of ISIS through the abandonment of Iraq.

His anointed successor, Hillary Clinton, is a "congenital liar" -- as William Safire said years ago (1996) in the New York Times -- who seems to have little concept of the difference between right and wrong, and most people know it.

I suspect that number is going to reach an astonishing level as the majority already think she should have been indicted for her email activities and more shoes are yet to drop. Yes, there are some in the Democratic Party with so little moral compass they are willing to vote for her anyway, even though she has lied to Congress, among many other crimes (what do these people say to their children?), but the die is cast -- while the jihadist death toll grows across the world....

2 Books2.1 Moses Wine2.1.1 The Big Fix2.1.2 Raising the Dead2.1.3 California Roll2.1.4 The Straight Man2.1.5 Moses Wine as autobiography2.1.6 Non-Fiction Books2.1.7 Turning Right at Hollywood and Vine: The Perils of Coming Out Conservative in Tinseltown2.1.8 I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn't Already===Turning Right at Hollywood and Vine: The Perils of Coming Out Conservative in Tinseltown[edit]First published as "Blacklisting Myself," this short memoir was Simon's first book-length work of non-fiction. It describes his gradual political turn from left to right as well as many personal adventures in movie business working with such well known figures as Richard Dreyfuss, Richard Pryor, Woody Allen and Paul Mazursky.

I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn't Already[edit]An outgrowth of Simon's political writing, this book explains how moral narcissism is a threat to our republic. Unlike the conventional narcissism of a Greek youth transfixed by his handsome reflection in a pool, this is a narcissism of ideology. What you proclaim are your ideas and values, Simon warns, not their results are what makes you "good." The first chapter of this book were reprinted in Commentary magazine.

According to a Friday night Channel 2 report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to undergo an investigation under caution, as part of a probe into a wider, unspecified investigation surrounding alleged money-laundering.

Members of his family too are likely to be investigated.

The report follows Thursday's investigation of Ari Harow, Netanyahu's former chief of staff, who was placed under a five day house arrest following questioning.

Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump in four crucial swing states, according to a new poll out Friday, good news for the Clinton campaign that has seen other surveys show the presidential race tightening in recent weeks.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll finds Clinton with high single-digit leads in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. Clinton maintains these leads, though at slightly smaller margins, when third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are included.

Clinton leads Trump in Colorado 43% to 35%. Johnson performs best in this state — he garners 12% support when included in the poll, which shrinks Clinton and Trump’s support to 39% and 33%, respectively.

In Florida, Clinton also paces Trump, 44% to 37%. Clinton’s lead slips to 5 points with third party candidates factored in.

Clinton is ahead of Trump in North Carolina 44% to 38%, a state which President Barack Obama won for Democrats in 2008 for the first time since 1976. It reverted red in 2012, but polling has shown Clinton competitive there, drawing significant support from minority communities.

Lt. General Michael Flynn called for Ayatollah Khomeini, who died in 1989, to condemn the attack.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a military adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign who was briefly on the vice presidential short list, repeatedly called on a deceased Iranian leader to denounce the terrorist attack in Nice, France.

“I want the Imam, or I want Khomeini in Iran to stand up and be counted,” Flynn told Fox’s Megyn Kelly on Thursday night. Twelve hours later, Flynn again called on the late leader to respond to the attacks.

“I have called out for the leaders of Iran ― Khomeini ― and the leaders of the Muslim world” to denounce the terrorist attack, Flynn told “Fox & Friends” on Friday morning.

“I can tick them off if you want, there’s a bunch of countries with a bunch of so-called leaders,” said the former Defense Intelligence Agency director.

Flynn’s offer to list Muslim leaders was significantly undermined, however, by the fact that his number-one example has been dead for almost 30 years.

Liberals love to vilify those who don't agree with them, especially the puffington host. I'm sure he was referring to Ali Khamenei, who is currently the supreme leader of Iran. And he be alive. Smiley face smiley face.

Friday night’s failed coup was Turkey’s last hope to stop the Islamization of its government and the degradation of its society. Reflexively, Western leaders rushed to condemn a coup attempt they refused to understand. Their reward will be a toxic Islamist regime at the gates of Europe.

Our leaders no longer do their basic homework.The media relies on experts-by-Wikipedia. Except for PC platitudes, our schools ignore the world beyond our shores. Deluged with unreliable information, citizens succumb to the new superstitions of the digital age.

So a great country is destroyed by Islamist hardliners before our eyes—and our president praises its “democracy.”---Erdogan has packed Turkey’s courts with Islamists. He appointed pliant, pro-Islamist generals and admirals, while staging show trials of those of whom he wished to rid the country. He has de facto, if not yet de jure, curtailed women’s freedoms. He dissolved the wall between mosque and state (Friday night, he used mosques’ loudspeakers to call his supporters into the streets). Not least, he had long allowed foreign fighters to transit Turkey to join ISIS and has aggressively backed other extremists whom he believed he could manage.

And his diplomatic extortion racket has degraded our own military efforts against ISIS.

Not in this case. All Erdogan's moves have been documented, analyzed, and commented on by numerous media outlets since he first came to power years ago. Since the Syrian civil war started, he has been getting more than his share of print. Maybe it's just that this FOX guy hasn't been paying attention.

Reflexively, Western leaders rushed to condemn a coup attempt they refused to understand.

Not from what I saw.

Anyone who pays any attention at all knows where Erdogan stands and what he is up to. It would be hard to miss his crackdown on the opposition and the military or his recent efforts to change the constitution to give himself more dictatorial powers. And I'm not so sure that Obama was happy as hell that Erdogan did everything he could to sabotage the US efforts against ISIS in Syria. Well, until recently now that he has his own problems with them.

But any country would be stupid to jump in and applaud a coup at the beginning no matter which side you wanted to win. The US did what most NATO and EU countries did. The waited until they could see who was going to come out on top. Until then the only comments I heard were 'We are concerned and are monitoring the events in Turkey closely'. It wasn't until it was pretty evident that Erdogan was going to defeat the coup that they started offering up platitudes about democracy.

A wise choice. Given that Erdogan had apparently won, how would it help US' interests to condemn a current NATO member because it put down a military coup? How do you say you are standing up for 'democracy' when you support a failed military takeover. I'm sure the US would have loved to see Erdogan gone. When it appeared it wasn't going to happen you cut your losses.

Even with Western leaders mouthing the right words, there is little doubt Erdogan will use the coup attempt to get what he couldn't get with the vote on the constitution changes. Also, it's likely that he will say the coup attempt was supported by foreigners (read the US).

Turkey’s highest judiciary council suspends judges and members of its own board for links to reformist Muslim leader Fethullah Gülen

The Turkish government has removed 2,745 judges from duty in the wake of a failed military coup in which over 161 people were killed.

The decision followed an emergency meeting of Turkey’s Judges and Prosecutors High Council which was called to discuss members’ links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, the leader of a reformist Muslim movement.

The meeting saw the dismissal of 2,745 judges along with several members of the council itself, which is Turkey’s highest judiciary board.

Turkey’s state-run news agency said authorities have detained 10 members of the council. The Anadolu Agency said arrest warrants have been issued for 48 administrative court members and 140 members of Turkey's appeals court.

The government has repeatedly blamed the influence of the Gülen movement for the coup and has said the overthrow attempt was carried out by a clique of supporters within the military.Turkey’s acting military chief of staff Umit Dundar earlier said: “The armed forces is determined to remove members of the Gülen movement from its ranks.”

Mr Gülen, a preacher and former imam, was an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan until 2013. The relationship turned sour after a corruption scandal implicated Mr Erdogan, who then accused Mr Gülen of being behind the corruption investigations.

He is now on Turkey’s most-wanted terrorist list and the country has demanded his extradition from the United States where he is in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.

Mr Gülen is the founder of the Gülen movement, which teaches a moderate Islam which believes in science, multi-party democracy and interfaith dialogue between the Abrahamic religions.

Word on the street is that Deuce's spare bedroom is currently being used a safe house for Mr. Gulen.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.